Faltered a bit this week, but not irrecoverably. My biggest problem was all but failing to complete the thermodynamics assignment due Friday, but the one due tomorrow made a lot more sense. I'm still getting good scored on my statics homework, which is good because the first test is supposed to be this week. I've also fallen behind in the readings, but at this point it's not a major problem. I'll need to be more wary of that in the future, however.
Part of the problem is spending so much time away from my dorm. It's not really possible to study in such an unpredictably noisy environment, so for the most part I don't even try. My backpack can be extremely heavy, and so textbooks are usually the first thing omitted. My plan, last week, was to leave my laptop, but considering every day's statics homework is only available online after that day's class I would be hard-pressed to get by just on my phone. So the laptop stays, for now.
Distractions are still an issue. I very rarely truly relax, which is why I'm planning to go home more weekends this semester. Two night's sleep away from the noise is incredibly helpful. I can also take all the books with me easily, which would easily allow me do the week's reading in advance. So that's another incentive.
In addition to audible sounds, there's also the issue of intellectual noise. I'm trying to cut back on social media use (and sorta succeeding, actually) because I simply don't need the endless stream of mostly-irrelevant information getting injected into my brain. (Now contrast this with my vague intention to start doing link-dumps....)
Then there's the elephant (and donkey) in the room. The Iowa Caucus is tomorrow night, at which point it's slightly okay to start paying attention to politics again. But should I? It takes a lot of energy and probably isn't worth it much. At the very least I'm not invested in an improbable outcome like I was last time.
My habit for this week is using the pomodoro technique while studying to avoid burnout.
